101 Quincy Coworking

At 101 Quincy Street, in the 1.22 square mile village of Hancock Michigan, is a three-story building that was originally home to The First National Bank. Constructed in 1888, the building underwent a significant renovation in 1903, and then another which began in 2014 and transformed it into a multi-tenant commercial space.

Occupying the second floor of the historic building is 101 Quincy Coworking, a creative work-space that rents space by the day, week or month to freelancers, remote workers, start-up teams and established entrepreneurs.

When Northern Perspectives, LLC acquired the property at 101 Quincy Street, the entrance to the building featured a simple lock and key access solution. It was one of several aspects of the building the property owners/managers sought to modernize while maintaining its historical integrity.

The antiquated solution posed a significant challenge, especially for 101 Quincy Coworking, whose renters have high turnover and highly varied access needs. In addition to the inefficiency and inconvenience of having to distribute, collect and manage keys for coworking space renters, the property managers would also have to administer keys to the up to 10 other various businesses occupying the first and third floors.

Northern Perspectives partner Jim Northey comments, “With multiple tenants, and especially with the high turnover of 101 Quincy Coworking’s clientele, we knew we needed an access solution that gave us more control of who was coming and going in the building. We looked into various options, including electronic keycards and keypads, but they would have still required us to constantly manage cards and changing keycodes.”

Then, Jim and his wife Sonia, his partner in Northern Perspectives, discovered VIZpin’s smartphone-based access solution. He says, “We were immediately sold on the idea that we could easily grant and revoke access from anywhere at any time, and without needing internet. We also loved that we would get the benefit of system updates immediately. And, it was important that we were readily able to retrofit the existing front door with VIZpin.”

Jim and Sonia manage VIZpin access for tenants on the first and third floors and granted administrative rights to the tenant at 101 Quincy Co-working to manage their own access needs. In addition, a VIZpin reader was installed on the door to the building’s telecommunications wiring closet, which requires careful monitoring of who accesses it and when to meet tenant information security compliance requirements.

According to Jim, “VIZpin is especially valuable to us for the flexibility and convenience it provides, especially for the 101 Quincy Co-working space. Access can be easily granted and revoked and there’s no need to keep track of cards or access codes. With VIZpin, we can also provide access to the other businesses in the building based on their unique needs, and of course, the 30-day audit trail is perfect for monitoring access to the telecommunications wiring closet. We will very likely add VIZpin readers to more interior doors in the future.”